Title Info

seen: 1-5

type: TV

grade: watchable

source: digital fansub

form: sub

made: unknown

Review created: Thu Aug 9 11:23:05 EST 2001

mod: none

From the opening moments you know you're in for something cute, light
and fun and the show does not disappoint on that score. On the other
hand it's is a little bit more clever, and rich in character, than the
focus on fun might suggest. As such it avoids membership of the `dumb
fun' genre.

Synopsis

The setting is pure sci-fi, full of spaceships and high tech. And within
the military of some world there exists the `angel division'. A group
assigned with a great number of special missions. However before you get
an image in your mind let me tell you that neither the missions, or indeed
the group, are anything like you might expect. Instead you've got 5 females
with an excess of personality, some quite varied abilities, and a cavalier
disregard for any sense of uniform or military. And the jobs they get match
this, they're not so much high status and ultra-violent as all the weird jobs
that the `sensible' parts of the army don't want to go near.

The missions themselves vary a lot. Some of them are fun, some of them are
dangerous and many of them are both. And should it be a quiet day you can
rely on the group to get in trouble all by themselves. While it's not really
covered in the series it also seems that they can be hired, so often they
are visiting different parts of this interesting universe having `adventures'
at the hands of employers almost as weird as they.

Review

There's a reason why the synopsis is relatively short and low on details...
and that's because the anime is as well. Yes, it's another one of these
horrid `micro-episode' anime titles in which each episode is only 10 minutes
long but still tells a self contained story. As such things have to move
pretty fast and we don't end up getting a lot of background. Thus while the
world seems quite well designed, and there's all sorts of interesting
technology and environments, very little is explained or described. It's
a shame really.

That said this series does some very good work in the time allowed it. The
first thing is that while the characters are archetypal, with each carefully
designed to fit their `model', they have more richness and a slight air of
cynicism or parody about them. There are two `physical' girls to begin with.
One is into weapons, speaks strongly and has lots of male manners in her
behaviour. The other has physical and combat abilities, but matches this with
an impulsive and active personality. Another is a diminutive cute cat-girl, who
actually ends up being the brains and heart of the group. There's also an
overly cryptic, mysterious, and seemingly inert robotic female. And, finally,
there's a pink haired, lively, and incredibly lucky girl who's the most
recent recruit.

The characters are not unfamiliar. With quite a few of them you can almost
see the other anime characters that have been used in their construction. But
they're surprisingly well done. Some nice interaction, some nice tweaks to
keep the archetype fresh, and pleasantly clever and self reflective dialog.
It doesn't hurt, of course, that they are also cute and that the two physical
leads have some decent action scenes. The two physical leads are probably
meant to be sexy as well, there's some overly obvious cleavage involved, but
the somewhat cartoony style, and the focus on cute and humor, means it gets
submerged beneath the sheer, good natured, fun of the title.

And the stories are really quite impressive. Telling a decent story in such
a short time is quite a challenge and this show does a good job of it. It
uses all sorts of tricks, and a strong sense of direction, to fit quite a lot
into each 10 minute period. There's some character pieces, some action pieces
and some nice light stories. And the writing is actually good. One episode in
which they argue with an overly AI warhead whose decided that it wants more
out of life than explosive annihilation sticks in my mind. It's fun, full of
character, fast moving but not dumb.

The production shows a similar sense of style. The general look is brightly
colored and not overly complex, a bit cartoony but very cute. The characters
look, sound and act in very different ways which is good. And the show knows
how to seamlessly change style. A bit of super-deformed comedy, some complex
action simplified into a sequence of stills or even some actual detailed
action all flow neatly from one to another. Imaginative and quite fun to
watch even if it is not technically that impressive. There's also some computer
graphics, for the spacecraft, which is as well incorporated as any other
element. The voice acting is excellent, lovely on the ear and well matched to
each character, while the music is also clever and sets the scene well. The
opening itself is one of those distressingly cute anthems that goes straight
into your skull and refuses to budge.

It's no classic, both the short running time and the focus on humor, cute and
fun guarantee that. But at the same time it knows what it is, doesn't take
itself too seriously and has some solid skills and faith behind it. Thus it
is surprisingly good fun and very easy to watch.